Note: I am in no way affiliated with the developer of the software mentioned below, just sharing in case others find it useful.
I came across this new backup application, Parachute Backup, quite by chance recently. It’s quite a new app but already seems quite polished.
Its primary function is to create local backups of your iCloud content (including iCloud Photos), and is able to make complete backups even if you have set “optimise storage” on (whereby photos or files not recently used are offloaded to cloud to reduce local storage). Parachute Backup cleverly triggers the download of batches of offloaded files or photos, backups them up to your specified destination, and then triggers macOS to offload them again if previously offloaded.
What makes this so useful is you don’t have to have massive internal storage so you can fully download your files and photos for backup. Obviously your backup destination drive (typically an external removable drive or NAS does need to be big enough. But for those of us who can’t afford or justify the cost of a large internal SSD, you can still create full backups of your iCloud content to cheap external drives while keeping “optimise storage” on.
I have lost files from iCloud before and I’m not sure why. If this is a one way backup from iCloud, then it’s is useful for me! I’ll check it out! Thanks!
Yes, this gives you the option of a full backup, or you can mirror. I imagine you’d be wanting the backup option which means any files removed / lost from iCloud in the future will still be available in your local backup
I’ve only got around to trying this over the last couple of days. It took several hours but the first backup of my iCloud Photo Library has just completed. It copies everything down from iCloud without filling up my local drive and my backup is now stored safely on my NAS.
Prior to reading about this I was thinking about setting up Immich on my NAS via docker, and then using the iOS app to sync the files to create a backup. Using Parachute I no longer need to consider this. I can just run it from my Mac once I’ve mounted the NAS share via SMB.
Thanks for taking the time to let us know about this. So far I’ve been really impressed with how easy it was to setup and gets the initial backup made.
Serendipitously, I just bookmarked this app too! Making a local backup of my photo library has been a backburner project for me for a while.
I did set up Chronosync to copy some files from icloud to my local NAS a couple times a week, that seems to be working without any trouble. Apparently, they released a new feature to access icloud more “natively” recently.
Currently I have to have at least one Mac at home that has enough storage to allow it not to be optimised for iCloud, so that I can back up the lot to Backblaze. (I also create a bootable copy via CCC).
Am I right in saying that this will be an absolute game changer for me as I don’t have to do this anymore? I can optimise for iCloud, and backup up to both Backblaze and Parachute (and CCC). In the event of loss I can restore from Backblaze and then restore iCloud Drive and photos. Have I got that right?
You no longer require a Mac with sufficient internal storage for non optimised iCloud storage. However, you will need an external storage device of sufficient size to back up your full iCloud to.
Even for the separate cost of both the macOS and iOS version of this app it seems pretty good! I have seen people mention using CCC before to make backups of iCloud related items but that is quite a chunk more than both these combined cost wise!
Cheaper and upgradeable! Although it means I will need three SSDs stuck to the back of my iMac: CCC, Time Machine, and iCloud backup. But still worth it.